Chapter 9: Too Close for Comfort
"Pancakes will be ready in a minute!" Konoka announced. She rapped on the counter with her spatula. "Everybody get to the table."
"Oh, man, those things smell awesome!" Rainbow Dash rubbed her hooves together in anticipation. "Come on, Twilight!" She banged a hoof on the table. "Get up!"
"Mrneh," Twilight groaned as she uncurled and stretched.
"What the hay were you doing up so late anyway? Even I got to sleep before you did."
"I was busy writing down some stuff about the interactions between unicorn magic and...whatever the magic from this world is called." She yawned. "I got on a roll and wanted to write it all down before I forgot it."
"Should have known," Rainbow Dash sniffed. "What were you doing over there anyway? You looked a bit-" She crossed her eyes, stuck out her tongue, and twitched a few times. "- You know, kinda wonky."
"Oh, that..." Twilight said, glad that her dark coat helped to mask the slight blush that she knew she had. "Chisame needed my help with something, and it gave me an opportunity to examine how magic works in this world."
"Oh." Rainbow turned back to her plate, having lost interest. Twilight sighed in relief. She knew that the whole kissing thing had simply been a means to an end, but she couldn't count on Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy seeing it that way. Not to mention that thinking about it still made her feel a bit weird. She immediately tensed up again as she heard Fluttershy's voice from behind her.
"Really, what kind of stuff did you do?"
"Nothing too interesting," Twilight mumbled. "Just helping Chisame do a magic thing."
"What kind of-"
"Pancakes are done!" Konoka announced. Fortunately for Twilight, Fluttershy's voice was reserved enough that Konoka drowned her out. Not to mention that both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy appeared to be completely distracted by the massive stack of pancakes that Konoka was placing on the table.
"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash licked her lips.
"Thank you for making breakfast for us," Fluttershy said. "It looks delicious."
"Oh, it's no problem," Konoka answered. "I like cooking, and it got you out of Yue and Nodoka's room. I think Yue was starting to go a little crazy. Besides, my grandpa called Nodoka in. I guess he needed her artifact for something. Negi too."
"Is that where Asuna is, then?" Twilight asked, glad to be talking about something that didn't involve the events of the night before.
"No, she's just delivering newspapers," Konoka said as she began doling out the pancakes. "Needs to get some disposable income from somewhere."
"At least she's outside," Rainbow Dash grumbled. "I haven't gotten to really fly in like a week. My wings are going to fall off if I can't get back on it."
"Negi's says he's still working on it. There are a few places on campus I can think of where you might be able to fly around a bit," Konoka said. "Twilight says that you have some pretty cool tricks."
"That's right!" Rainbow Dash smacked her hoof on the table. "I'm the fastest flier in Equestria! I can't keep sitting around like this or I'll go crazy!"
"Well, I'm sure he'll get something figured out," Konoka said with a chuckle. "I'll be sure to let him know that you're anxious about it." She pointed at the plate of food. "Dig in!"
Nodoka sat in one of the chairs in the principal's office. She stared intently at her own fingers, which she was twiddling rapidly in the absence of anything else to do. Her arms were pressed tightly against her body to combat the chill in the air. She had only been in the office twice before, and both of those times were regarding Haruna's pranks. She couldn't think of anything that Haruna had done in the last week or so that would merit that sort of attention, so quite naturally she was worried. She nearly jumped out of the chair as the Principal hustled in, followed by Mana and Setsuna, with those three secret agent men following them.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting," Konoemon croaked. "I hate to drag you in here so early, but hopefully this won't take too long." He cleared his throat and took a seat as his desk. "I suppose I should at least try to fill you in on what's going on. I assume you already know about all the strange occurrences around campus, correct?"
She nodded.
"Of course you do, you have some of the ponies staying in your room. Where is my mind today?" He shook her head. "Let's see, what don't you know? Right. Last night our new members of our security team," he nodded at Chuck, Casey, and Morgan, "encountered a robotic military drone of some sort. While that in itself is rather...enigmatic, that's only partially related to why we've brought you here. Mr. Bartowski and Mr. Casey attempted to neutralize it, but they were not adequately armed. However, they also encountered another one of our...mysterious arrivals, I guess? We really need to come up with a better term for them. Anyway, when they first encountered her she was unarmed, but when the robot attacked directly, she managed to produce some sort of missile launcher-"
"A rocket propelled grenade," Casey interjected.
"An RPG-7 to be specific," Chuck added.
"Yes. That," Konoemon mumbled. "It damaged the robot badly enough that Mana and Setsuna were able to neutralize it completely. However, immediately afterward the RPG was nowhere to be found. We currently have no idea where she obtained it, or how she managed to hide it. For obvious reasons, we cannot let her back into the dorms without further investigation. I realize that you don't really like using your artifact for such things, but I think the situation merits it." He stopped, obviously expecting a response.
"I understand," she answered, barely above a whisper. Having so many eyes all trained on her at once made her want to shrink until they couldn't see her anymore.
"Very well, then." Konoemon snapped his fingers. "Mana, Setsuna, would you kindly bring Homura in?"
The two girls turned and walked into the small side room of the office. They emerged with a third girl between them. Nodoka recognized her as the visitor who had been staying in Makie and Ako's room. She had only seen her outside of the room a handful of times. More than anything else, the girl looked tired. There was something weary about the way her arms hung limply at her sides, and the way her half-closed eyes stared blankly forward, looking at nothing in particular. She walked to the other free chair and took a seat, not even bothering to look at anyone else in the room. Konoemon cleared his throat.
"Shall we begin?"
"I don't see why not," the girl said in a tired voice.
"Nodoka?" Konoemon nodded in her direction. Nodoka returned the nod as she withdrew her pactio card from her shirt pocket.
"Adeat." There was a flash of light, and the card was replaced with a old-looking, leather-bound book.
"Ooh, that's cool!" Morgan whispered, loudly enough that it might as well not be a whisper at all.
"Shh," Casey grunted as he elbowed Morgan into silence.
Nodoka opened the book and laid it across her knees. Konoemon cleared his throat and began to speak to Homura.
"Now, I want you to understand that we have no intention of harming you in any way and want you to be as comfortable as possible. It's just that we have to place the safety of our students first and foremost. Please don't hold it against us."
"Of course," she said. Nodoka couldn't tell whether she was being sincere or sarcastic.
"Can you tell us why you were outside after curfew?" Konoemon asked.
"I couldn't sleep."
Nodoka scanned a page of her book and nodded, confirming the truth of the statement. The next few questions were similarly mundane; how long she had been out, how did she find her accommodations, and was she getting along with her roommates. All of Homura's answers were brief, as if she was afraid of wasting her words. Konoemon stroked his beard for a moment in preparation for the harder questions.
"So when you were out taking a walk, and the security officers told you to go back to the dorm, what did you do?"
"I started to walk back," she answered. "I heard the robot so I turned back to see what it was."
"And you weren't afraid when you saw it?"
"No."
"Why not? Most girls in your position would have run."
"I've seen worse."
Nodoka bit her lip as the words wrote themselves into the book on her lap. Hovering above them was a dirty and monstrous scribble. She couldn't quite make out what it was, but it wasn't pleasant in the least. She silently hoped that Konoemon wouldn't want any more detail; she was quite sure that she didn't exactly want to know the exact nature of the dark shape that dominated the page.
"Such as?" the old man said.
"I'd rather not talk about it," Homura answered.
Nodoka fought against her urge to look at the page. She could see another, similarly freakish image on the page and she had no desire to see it in more detail.
"Very well," Konoemon said with a sigh. "During the altercation, you somehow obtained a military grade RPG launcher. Where did you get it?"
"I stole it."
"From whom?"
"The Yakuza."
"The Yakuza?" Konoemon raised an eyebrow. There hadn't been the faintest speck of sarcasm in the girl's voice. He turned to Nodoka, who looked down at her book. There were no traces of falsehood in the words there either. She shrugged affirmatively at the principal, who sighed in resignation. "How exactly did you manage that?"
"I have certain abilities allowed me to proceed unnoticed. It was a long time ago."
"Abilities? Such as?"
"I'd rather not say."
The headmaster frowned for a moment before turning to Nodoka again. She sighed. Even if she understood that the circumstances justified it, she always felt a bit guilty about prying into someone's mind. Homura turned her head a little bit; Nodoka could feel the girl's eyes on her. She gave the black-haired girl the most apologetic look she could manage before reading the page. There were plenty of words on it, but out of respect for Homura's privacy she decided to use only the words that were really necessary.
"Time manipulation," Nodoka said, her voice barely above a whisper. Konoemon nodded at her to continue. "She can temporarily stop time to move around without being detected."
"Have you used this ability since you've been here?" His voice was more serious now.
"I used it a few times when I first arrived," she answered. "I haven't used it again since I was placed in the dorm."
"Do you have any intention of using it again in any way that is harmful of anyone on this campus or invasive of their privacy?"
"No."
"Good." He noted Nodoka's affirmation.
"Do you have any intention of using any of your weapons or other abilities in any way that is harmful to anyone here?"
"No."
"I see." He leaned back in his chair. "As you have no intention of harming anyone, I see no problem in allowing you to return to the dorms. I only require that you not use any of these abilities or weapons except in self defense. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," Homura answered flatly.
"Now, then, I believe you are free to-"
"Uh, excuse me-" Chuck interrupted with a mumble, half raising his hand in an attempt to not seem rude. "That doesn't really explain where she got that RPG from. She didn't have it when we first met her."
"Oh, that." Konoemon yawned. "Well, she's familiar with magic, so I'd assume she has some sort of pocket dimension or something that she stores her weapons in. It wouldn't be unheard of. It's actually fairly common in cases of mages who use conventional weaponry." His eyes darted towards Mana for a moment, and then to Homura. "Am I right?"
"More or less," Homura said.
"That does raise another question..." Konoemon continued. "Your ability to manipulate time is quite atypical, and appears to be outside the scope of normal magic. How exactly did you obtain these abilities?"
Homura's body stiffened. She continued to be still, but she seemed to be making a concerted effort to maintain her composure.
"I-" Her voice cracked and she coughed to cover it up. "I'd rather not talk about it. It was an unpleasant experience and I don't like talking about it."
"Would you object if Nodoka simply records your thoughts in her artifact?" Konoemon asked. "I understand that you might prefer not to, but you possess abilities beyond what we are familiar with, and if others with similar abilities appear in the same manner you did, it is rather important that we understand what we are dealing with."
"Very well." Homura closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Nodoka braced herself as she watched the words begin to scratch themselves into existence. At first, they faded in slowly. She could hardly bring herself to look at them; half out of respect for Homura's privacy, and half because she was afraid of what would appear. Despite her misgivings, curiosity won out and she nervously read along. The story was disjointed, fragmented; much more so than she would have expected from Homura's earlier words. She glanced over at the other girl; her hands were clenched so hard that her knuckles were white.
Nodoka could feel the blood draining out of her face as the story unfolded. She could hardly bear to keep reading. The pictures that blossomed on each page terrified her; what the things they represented must have looked like in reality was something she couldn't imagine. The words continued to appear, quicker now, and more disjointed. Homura was breathing slowly, but Nodoka could tell that it was a forced slowness. The words and images sprayed onto the page even faster; so fast that Nodoka could barely even keep up with them as she flipped the pages. Homura's breathing grew more uneven; she was starting to lose control. Her lips were trembling and Nodoka could tell that a lump was starting to form in her throat. The words were appearing so rapidly that Nodoka could barely flip the pages quickly enough. Homura's fists were clenched so hard that her hands were shaking. Her whole body trembled.
"That's enough," Konoemon barked.
Homura's eyes snapped open. She shuddered, and began wringing her hands together. Nodoka swallowed hard. She looked down at the book. At the top of the page was a distorted scribble of a vaguely humanoid figure, surrounded by shadows. The rest of the page was covered with a rambling stream of words; "I can't do it not again I can't protect them I have to protect them I can't do this again they can't die I have to protect them I can't keep doing this I'm too tired and I can't protect them I tried I tried so much but I couldn't protect them it happened again and again and I can't let them down again I can't let them die and I can't keep doing it I have to protect them and I can't let anyone else get hurt..."
"Nodoka, your artifact retains all the information within it until you dismiss it, correct?"
"Yes, sir," she squeaked.
"If you wish, you can leave it here so I can read it. You may dismiss it in..." He looked at his watch, "...two hours or so." He turned to Homura. "I apologize for that. I did not realize that it would be so unpleasant for you."
"No, it is alright," she answered. Her voice was a bit more raw than before, but it was still flat. "I should not allow myself be affected by it so much."
"I see..." he said. "Well, the both of you can return to the dormitory. Nodoka, would you please take Homura back to her room?"
"Of course."
The two girls rose. Nodoka placed her book on the corner of Konoemon's desk. Both girls seemed a bit shaky as they made their way out the door. As it clicked into place behind them, Konoemon took the book and began to flip through the pages. He sighed, and closed it with a heavy sound.
"You three can go," he said, waving dismissively at the three men. "I thank you for your service, and you can rest assured that you will be rewarded for your assistance. Once I consult with Setsuna and Mana we can iron out exactly what it'll be."
"Thanks," Casey grunted. Chuck and Morgan each opened their mouths to say something, but thought better of it in favor of smiling and nodding. The trio hustled out of the room, sensing that Konoemon wanted them to go elsewhere.
"Now then, what is the status of that robot thing?" Konoemon asked. "Does it currently pose any threat?"
"We have every reason to believe that the threat is entirely neutralized," Mana answered. "Between the RPG and Setsuna's attacks, all of its weapons were destroyed, and I hit it with enough binding spells that even if its main systems are still operational it won't be able to move for another week or so. I had the security crew take it to the testing area in the robotics center so Hakase can confirm its deactivation. Hopefully when she examines it she can provide more information about its origin."
"Very good, very good." He turned to Setsuna. "Is there anything else?"
"We managed to track the robot back to its apparent point of origin," she said. "It was apparently heavy enough that it did a fair amount of damage to the pavement as it moved. The damage starts in the area of the train shuttle station, so we believe it first appeared there. We found a set of odd objects in the area; a bunch of small spheres of varying colors made of an unknown substance. They have a very strong magical aura, so they're currently being held at the Shrine until we have an opportunity to examine them more closely. I believe they're enchanted in some way, but we don't know anything definite at the moment, so I sealed them in an anti-magic container."
"So there is no immediate threat?"
"No."
"In that case, you may go as well," the old man said. "Be sure that I receive all findings regarding the objects as soon as they are examined."
The two girls bowed respectfully and vacated the office. Konoemon closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, savoring the silence for a moment. Then he reached for the book. He felt its weight in his hands for a few moments before flipping it open, his old eyes sluggishly scanning the words, turning the pages slowly. As he finally reached the last pages, he sighed heavily. He slammed the book shut, the sound echoing through the empty room.
"How distressing. This may be worse than I thought."
Chao glanced at her watch. She had been stretched thin enough since the whole the debacle with the Cassiopeia, and now both of her partners were currently otherwise occupied. Hakase was busy fawning over that weird robot, and Mana was currently advising the Principal as he overhauled the campus security in light of recent events. Not only had she spent the whole day working on the stuff that Hakase was supposed to be doing, but now she had to find a replacement mercenary to send on the excursion she had planned for Mana.
Although that last issue might have worked in her favor. Surprisingly enough, Chisame had already managed to locate a replacement; and, all things considered, it was probably better that she outsourced this particular mission anyway. She couldn't quite trust Mana to keep quiet about everything unless she tossed in some extra hush money. If she hired someone with no connection to the school, it was rather unlikely that they'd report it to anyone who mattered, and even without factoring in the hush money, the replacement was a good deal cheaper. Of course, there was no guarantee of quality, but the mission wasn't exactly difficult.
There was a knock on the laboratory door.
"Who is it?"
"Walker," answered a feminine voice.
"Ah, good. Right on time." Chao punched a button on the edge of her desk and the door slid open, revealing a young, blonde woman, dressed in a non-too-average skirt and blouse. She was a good deal more model-ish looking than Chisame's description had implied. "Huh, you aren't exactly what I expected."
"What, you didn't expect me to show up for the briefing in full uniform, did you? Besides, I could say the same thing about you. I generally don't work for children."
"Rest assured that even if you think I'm a child, I'm hardly childish," Chao answered. She pressed the button again, closing the door. "I'll forgive it, though. I get that quite a lot when I apply my considerable intellect and resources towards goals generally pursued by adults. Sometimes I forget that I'm used to special treatment."
"Well, I guess it doesn't matter anyway," Walker answered as she took a seat on one of the stools that littered the laboratory. "As long as you can pay what you offered, it doesn't really matter how old you are. Now, what exactly is this object that you want me to recover?"
"Straight to the point, huh?" Chao chuckled. "Well, it's not exactly an object, per se. Now, this is going to make me sound a bit crazy, but just bear with me for a moment. Recently, there have been a few anomalous events in the area, one of which is the appearance of several...well, see for yourself." She poked another button on the desk and a massive screen popped out of the wall; a collage of images splashed across it.
"Is that...a unicorn?" Walker asked, clearly incredulous.
"Yes, a unicorn and two pegasi," Chao answered. "I get it, their mere existence doesn't make any sense. I could go into more detail about exactly why that is, but it's unnecessary. All you need to know is this: I needed to create means of monitoring their locations. While I was working on it, I realized that there was another one of them that is not accounted for. Your task is to track it down and bring it here. Without hurting it, naturally." She took hold of a device from the table, which appeared to be a heavily modified GPS unit. "This is the tracking device. I have it set up only to track the one whose precise whereabouts are unknown. I'd hate for you to get confused."
"I think I'll be okay," the blonde answered. "Anything else I should be aware of?"
"Well, judging by the energy signature, I'd guess the pony in question is a unicorn, though I can't be sure. From my observations, unicorns seem to be capable of limited telekinesis, and may be able to perform other spells as well. But if you tranquilize it, it shouldn't give you any trouble. If you can't bring it back for some reason, any information about the pony or its whereabouts will be sufficient. Although you will obviously receive a bonus if you bring it back here."
"I see. Capturing a unicorn will be a first for me."
"Good. There's more information, obviously, but I can email that to you. I just needed you here in person so I could give you this." She held out the tracking device, which Walker accepted. "I wish you good luck on your mission."
"Luck has nothing to do with it," Walker said with a smile. "I'll be back with your pony in short order. Is that all?"
"That's it."
"In that case I'll be going. I have preparations to make." She bowed and exited.
Chao smiled as the door closed behind Walker. She had no clue where Chisame had found this woman, but something about her was a bit refreshing. The absurdity of the mission had barely phased her, and she charged less than Mana to boot. Hopefully this deal would work out.
"You're staying in Makie's room, right?" Nodoka asked. Homura merely nodded in response. "Well, here we are." Nodoka gestured at the door. She could hear Makie's voice babbling from within.
"Thank you," Homura said. As she reached for the doorknob, Nodoka took a quick step forward and wrapped her arms around Homura and squeezed.
"I'm sorry," she whispered into Homura's ear. "About the mind reading, about...everything that you...I didn't know..." She released Homura from the hug and took a step back. "Sorry about that, too," she mumbled.
"I...uh...it's alright..." Homura murmured.
"Okay, I suppose, I'll see you around then." Nodoka bowed and scurried back to her own room.
Homura allowed herself a small smile before she entered her room.
Log #6
May 28
Yesterday I was afforded the opportunity to take part in a magical ritual (called a "pactio") as a means of experiencing this world's particular type of magic firsthand. It involves the magic practitioner, dubbed the "magister" or "magistra" (in this case, myself) linking their magical aura to another person, the "minister" or "ministra", whom then benefits from the magical energy. I'm a bit fuzzy on the specifics, but it appears that the benefits involve the ministra receiving a magical item called an "artifact" that has certain magical powers and abilities related to their interests and personality. The magical link can also enhance the physical abilities of the ministra. The magistra does not receive quite as many benefits, but it seems that they can use the link to contact that ministra telepathically. The other benefits for the magistra appear to be social rather than magical; the concept of the pactio was apparently designed so that the ministra could protect the magistra so the latter could cast spells uninterrupted.
But in any case, that is irrelevant to the current situation. More interestingly, this experience confirmed my theory concerning the interactions of pony magic with this world's magic: All of the magical energy is the same. The only difference is the way in which the subject manipulates the magic. The different pony races all manipulate the same energy in different ways. Unicorn biology naturally funnels the magic to a single point: the horn. That natural focus is what allows unicorns to cast spells; it is only when all the magic is funneled to a single outlet that it is possible to organize the magic into a spell with a predetermined effect. Pegasi magic functions differently; it is concentrated primarily in the wings. This allows for aspects of flight, and their ability to interact with clouds and other weather formations, but it is not focused enough to cast specific spells. Earth pony magic is even less focused, being more or less dispersed equally throughout their bodies. While this doesn't grant them any specialized abilities, it gives them unnaturally high strength and stamina, in addition to the latent magic subtly influencing items that they work, especially in the case of plants.
What is interesting is that humans don't have any form of natural focus for their magic, which implies that they shouldn't be able to use any sort of spells whatsoever. However, they seem to have found a way to use external objects such as wands or charms as focus points to enable spellcasting. While unicorns have occasionally used such items for enhancement purpose, I don't believe there is any documented case of a non-unicorn being able to use an external focus in such a manner. If the humans have found a way to manage it, it may be possible to teach pegasi and earth ponies to cast unicorn spells by means of an external focus. When I have time, I may make an attempt to teach Fluttershy how to cast a spell. (I obviously can't use Rainbow Dash as a test subject; there's far too much potential for her to misuse her newfound power should the experiment work.)
The other interesting aspect of experiencing the pactio is that I managed to detect certain variations in the different magical auras; pony magic is subtly different from the native magic. It's the same substance, but it manifests a bit differently; I suppose the best image to describe it would be to say that it vibrates on a different wavelength or something of that nature. This means that by examining the-
"Hey Twilight!" Rainbow Dash burst through the door. "Haruna's about to start another movie. Something about rings. Nodoka thinks you'll like it."
"Maybe," Twilight answered, not even bothering to turn around. "I think I might have figured out a way to find out if there are any more ponies around."
"Really?" Rainbow Dash hovered across the room and plopped herself down next to Twilight. "How?"
"Well, when I made that magical contract, I realized that there are many minor variations between my own magical energy and the magical energy of this world. If I can detect these cosmological variations in the magic, I may be able to locate the source of the-"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Rainbow Dash interrupted.
"I think I can make a spell that can find other ponies. I haven't quite worked the kinks out of it, but if it works, we might be able to find our friends. And if not, at least we'll know that Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity probably didn't get sucked out of Equestria."
"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash jumped up and flew in a few tight celebratory circles.
"Don't get too excited!" Twilight telekinetically nabbed Rainbow Dash's tail, leaving her dangling in the air. "I still don't know if it's going to work; and if it does, I don't know if they'll actually be anywhere around here."
"Well, when are you going to finish it?"
"It's actually more or else complete. I just have to finish documenting it so that I can-"
"Oh who cares about that!" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "You might be able to find AJ, Rarity, and Pinkie, and you're holding up the process because you want to write the stuff down? Why would you give a flying feather about that when our friends could be out there? I'm going to go grab Fluttershy and when we get back, you're casting that spell whether or not you have it written down, okay? You can do that after we find our friends, okay?"
Before Twilight had a chance to respond, Rainbow Dash had disappeared into the hallway. Twilight slowly turned back to her journal. She rapped herself on the forehead with a hoof and with a loud groan swept a foreleg across the table, sending everything to the floor.
"What the hay am I doing?" she mumbled to herself. "How could I do that? I'm being such an idiot. I need to find my friends, not worry about getting the spell in a book someplace. I need to get it to work. Where'd I put that map...?"
Rainbow Dash tried not to smile too widely as she bolted across the hallway back to Haruna's room. Twilight was obviously just selling herself short, and the spell would obviously work. At least that's what Rainbow Dash was telling herself. There were a few memories in her head of how the unicorn's spells had backfired catastrophically, but they were currently shoved into the deepest darkest corners of her subconscious mind, right beside those memories of that botched Triple Twist that had landed her in the hospital. No use in dwelling on the negatives, after all. If the spell failed, nothing would really change. But if it worked...she could barely contain her giddiness as she burst into the room. Yue and Nodoka sat on their desks. Haruna was on the sofa, all the way at one end of it. Rainbow Dash directed her call at the seemingly empty space.
"Fluttershy! Come here, I need you for something!"
"Huh?" The yellow pegasus' head emerged from behind the couch cushion. "What's going on?"
"Twilight can explain it better than I can, now hurry up!" Rainbow hovered over to the couch, clamped her teeth down on Fluttershy's tail and began to tow her towards the door.
"So, uh, what exactly came up so suddenly?" Haruna asked.
"RRRRGGHH!" Rainbow related Fluttershy's tail. "It's, um, just pony things. Yeah, you can just start the movie without us. Not sure how long it'll take. Come on, Fluttershy."
"I think we'll hold off on starting the movie if you aren't going to be here," Yue said. "There are three of them, and they're all really long. No reason for you to get behind."
"Well, great, we'll just have to finish them up later then, I guess." Rainbow Dash babbled as she prodded Fluttershy towards the door. "Bye!"
"See you later!" Fluttershy managed to wave goodbye as Rainbow Dash hauled her out the door, kicking it shut after them.
"So what do you think she means by 'pony things'?" Haruna asked. "You think that's anything like, you know, 'girl things'?"
"Girl things?" Nodoka said.
"Yeah, you know, like...personal hygiene stuff?"
"You mean like brushing their teeth or something?" Nodoka scratched her head, mildly confused by Haruna's question.
"No no no..." Haruna shook her head. "I mean, like, you know, 'trolling for vampires', 'saddling up on Old Rusty', 'taking Carrie to prom', 'arts and crafts week at panty camp', 'panty shields up, captain!', 'that time of the month', 'playing banjo in Sgt. Zygote's ragtime-'"
"Okay okay, we get it!" Yue interrupted. "Just call it menstruation! We're all girls, after all. There's no need to use such obtuse euphemisms for something that we all experience on a regular basis anyway."
"But euphemisms are so much funnier," Haruna giggled. "But seriously, do you think that they have to deal with stuff like that?"
"That's..." Nodoka mumbled awkwardly. "...Wouldn't they have said something if they had those kinds of needs?"
"I dunno," Haruna said with a shrug. "Maybe they do and they just assume that humans don't, so we wouldn't understand. I mean, if you got dumped in pony-land or wherever they came from, wouldn't you feel kinda awkward about bringing that up?"
"Initially, I suppose, but I seriously doubt that they'd go to such lengths to hide a natural bodily function. I'm sure that someone as mature as Twilight would be able to bring up something like that without embarrassment."
"Sure, be all boring about it..." Haruna grumbled. Suddenly her face lit up with a perverse grin.
"Dare I even ask what thought just crossed your mind?" Yue asked.
"Well," Haruna tried to look thoughtful. "Maybe one of them is heat, and they-"
"Haruna!" Nodoka exclaimed. "Why would you say something like that!-?"
Yue just put her hand to her forehead.
"What? Horses do that, don't they?"
"I have no idea, and frankly that's none of your business anyway," Yue snapped. "Even if they were...that, we'd have no business prying into it."
"So you admit it!" Haruna leaped to her feet. "It's a possibility!"
"I suppose if you want to be entirely technical, it is," Yue admitted. "Though I feel compelled to add the caveat that there is absolutely no reason to make such an assumption."
"Yeah, it's really kind of weird..." Nodoka said. "I mean, there are all sorts of other things they might be doing. Why assume something strange like that?"
"You guys are no fun." Haruna crossed her arms across her chest and pouted. "It's not like there's any reason to assume they aren't doing something like that. What do you think they're doing?"
"I'm not sure..." Nodoka said. "Maybe Twilight figured out a way to talk to their other pony friends back in their world or something."
"And you think that my theory is out there..." Haruna sniffed.
"I'll admit it's not terribly unlikely..." Yue muttered reluctantly. "It's just in bad taste." She paused at the sound of "Bananaphone" blasting out of her cellphone. "Thank goodness, a distraction from this line of conversation." She flipped the phone open. "Hello? Yes. I see. Very well." She closed the phone.
"Who was it?" Nodoka asked.
"It was Negi-sensei," Yue answered as she began untangling the straps of her backpack from the back of her chair. "He wants us to actually come to class today. I know we've been keeping an eye on the ponies, but they seem to be largely self-sufficient, and if we skip too many school days people might notice."
"I was wondering how long I'd be able to get out of class for," Haruna said with a resigned sigh. "I guess you're right. The ponies can take care of themselves for a day or two."
"Do you think we should tell the ponies that we're leaving?" Nodoka said.
"Nah, we'll just leave a note." Haruna scribbled a few sentences onto on a napkin and smacked it down on the table. "There. Hopefully they won't destroy the room or something."
"I'm sure they won't," Nodoka answered. "We should get going. We can't keep Negi-sensei waiting."
The trio shuffled lethargically out of the room, Nodoka and Yue prodding Haruna forward.
"I thought you were ready to cast the spell..." Rainbow Dash grumbled as she hovered lazily from corner to corner of the room. "Can't you just like, 'zap!', and there they are?"
"I'm casting the spell right now!" Twilight answered. She was hunched over the desk, across the surface of which was stretched a map of the Mahora campus and surrounding countryside. Her horn glowed brightly, etching a purple sheen onto the paper. "I have to align the map properly so that the information I receive from the spell corresponds to it properly. Now be quiet so I can concentrate!" She turned her attention back to her magic.
"Do you think the spell will work, Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked in her usual squeak. She was curled up on the end of the couch shivering half from excitement and half from apprehension at the amount of magic that Twilight was gathering.
"Of course!" Rainbow Dash waved a hoof at Fluttershy as if to shoo away her anxiety. "It's her special talent, remember? She'd never botch something so important. Well, except for that parasprite thing, but that was just a fluke."
"But what about that failsafe spell?" Fluttershy answered, not sounding very reassured. "Or that time when she tried to enchant the snowplow?"
"Right. Those." Rainbow Dash stopped her hover-pacing, and dangled still in the air, held up by her wings. "Well, it's still not very often. Although there was that time she botched that teleportation spell-"
"Quiet!" Twilight yelled. "I'm trying to concentrate! Unless you want me to mess this up, stop talking. I'm almost done."
She turned back to the map, her entire body shaking with the effort of keeping the massive amounts of magical energy channeling smoothly into the spell. The glow at the tip of her horn was growing brighter and brighter by the second, casting the entire room in a supernaturally purple glow. Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped a bit as the glow began to lift Twilight into the air.
"Oh crap-" Rainbow Dash dove behind the sofa and pulled Fluttershy down beside her, shielding her head with her hooves.
"What are you-" The yellow pegasus got only halfway through her question before being interrupted by an explosive pop and a massive purple shock wave. There was a moment of silence, then a thud as Twilight fell to the floor. There was another moment of silence, and Rainbow Dash cautiously poked her head out from behind her cover. Nothing in the room had really been damaged, although just about everything had been disheveled a bit. Twilight lay on her back, her legs protruding into the air, twitching. As she slowly rolled herself right-side up, Rainbow Dash could see that Twilight's mane had been blasted into a series of rather spectacular spikes. She started rubbing her head.
"Well, horsefeathers," Rainbow Dash grumbled as she emerged from her hiding place. "Don't worry, I'm sure that you'll be able to figure it-"
"YEEEEESSS!" Rainbow Dash jumped back as Twilight suddenly sprang to her feet, a psychotically wide smile on her face. "YESYESYESYESYESYESYES! It worked! It worked!"
"It worked?" Fluttershy nervously poked her head out. "But what about that, that explosion?"
"That was supposed to happen!" Twilight exclaimed, her voice at a gallop. "The way the spell works it has to shoot out a bunch of magic. Then when it interacts with other sources of magic, it reports back any anomalies, and then the spell calculates-"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Rainbow Dash interrupted.
"The magic has to go out so it can tell me if there are any other ponies out there!" Twilight said, only slightly slower. "It'll cause any unusual sources of magic to show up on my map. If they do, I can figure out if any of them are ponies." She stared intently at the map, which shimmered with a faint amount of magical energy. "Come on, come on..." Her eyes widened as the shimmers began to consolidate into a handful of small glowing dots of varying shapes and sizes. "YES YES YES!" She clapped her forehooves together triumphantly."
"Did it work?" Fluttershy asked, craning her head over the map.
"It did!" Twilight squeaked triumphantly. The paper was marked by a handful of small glows. Twilight waved her hoof at a bright pink glow at the very corner of the map, one of the largest. "There's another pony out there!"
Homura sat up. After Nodoka had dropped her off, she had flopped onto the couch and spent the subsequent hour staring at the ceiling, thinking. Her thoughts came and went so quickly and fluidly that they blurred together, but most of them seemed to be about that book. Homura felt a little stupid for it, but she felt a bit guilty. Nodoka shouldn't have had to read that. She was just a nice, shy schoolgirl. She should never have been subjected to the litany of horrors of Homura's past. There was a small voice back in Homura's mind that wanted to scream that once she had been the same kind of girl, and that she had actually experienced all those things, but another louder voice reminded her that it had been her choice to go down that road, even if she hadn't fully understood it at the time. Besides, she had long since grown accustomed to the consequences of her actions. She had accepted her fate and done her best to be content with the lot she had drawn for herself. She should have comforted Nodoka, not the other way around.
She stretched, her back popping as she straightened up. Makie and Ako were in class, and likely wouldn't be back for hours; they had headed off while she was in the office. When she had entered the room, she had found a smudged note on the table written in pink gel pen: "In class. Food is in the fridge. Feel free to use the TV or computer. Be back this evening." Homura sighed, and reached for the remote. It had been who knows how long since she had ever had time to watch television. She had no idea what was popular or if the shows here were even remotely similar to those back home, but it didn't really matter. She needed something to fill the time.
She began to flip rather aimlessly through the modest handful channels that the dorm received. Nothing particularly caught her interest. She settled on a game show. Something about it was welcoming. It was mundane, but she didn't really want anything else. She had forgotten what it was like to not have to worry about anything other than guessing what the answers were. Her only wish was that she could feel a bit more frustration when when a contestant missed an easy answer. Although, maybe in this world, it wasn't such an easy question. Maybe it was miraculous that they had made such a close guess. She had no way of knowing outside of the overly happy host's snide comments. She changed the channel. She was still searching for something watchable when she heard a knock on the door.
She opened it a few inches to find Fluttershy sitting outside. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Homura opened the door the rest of the way and gestured for the pony to come inside.
"What brings you over?" Homura asked in her most welcoming tone, which didn't sound very welcoming.
"Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing," Fluttershy said quietly. "I didn't really get to talk to you much after everybody found us."
"I've been fine," Homura answered flatly. She returned to her seat on the couch and resumed channel surfing. She sighed. The pony had only been her companion for a short while, but she had to admit that it had made their joint wanderings at least a bit more bearable. She owed Fluttershy more of a response. "I suppose I'm getting a bit bored, not really having much to do. Before I ended up here, I was...busy. It's nice that I don't have so much hanging over my head, but I'm just not really sure what to do while I'm here. What about you?"
"Oh, I was a bit scared at first, but with my friends here it isn't so bad. Twilight is working on a spell to try to find some of our other friends. I hope we can find them. I really miss them."
"So you've been with the other ponies, then?" Homura asked, somewhat despondently.
"Yes, we've been playing games over in Nodoka and Haruna's room, mostly. Sometimes we go to the teacher's room. Konoka cooked for us once."
"I see."
"Are you sure you're alright?" Fluttershy slowly edged closer to Homura. "You look...tired."
"I'm not tired, just..." Homura searched for the right word, but couldn't quite find the right one, "...unsure of what to do with myself."
"I guess it can't be easy," Fluttershy said, "having to sit in here all by yourself." Suddenly, her face brightened. "If you wanted to, you could come over to our room. We were going to watch a movie. I'm sure that Twilight and Rainbow Dash wouldn't mind. They'd probably want to get to know you a bit better. I mean, I know it's not the same as being with your own friends, but it can't be much fun to sit in here alone. Being alone is no fun."
"I..." Homura started to answer, but clamped her mouth shut. Her first impulse was to refuse, like she had done so many times. But this was different. There was no reason for her to push anyone, or any pony, away. It had been so long since she had received such an honest offer that she would have been a fool to turn it down. Besides, Fluttershy was so adorable that Homura wasn't sure that she could have turned her down even if there was a good reason. "I guess so."
"That's great!" Fluttershy said, beaming. "We should probably get going. Rainbow Dash was getting a bit impatient. She wants to start the movie."
Homura turned off the television and stood up. Fluttershy was already waiting by the door, fidgeting as she waited. Homura couldn't help but smile a little. It was about time she at least attempted to do something that might be fun.
Haruna hustled down the hallway towards her room. Even though she had only managed to escape a few days worth of classes, she had already forgotten how annoying it was to have to sit in a room and listen to the teachers talk. Nodoka and Yue gone to keep up their library club duties; they had correctly guessed that Haruna was too distracted by her desire to hang out with the magic ponies and sent her back to the room to check up on them. She flung the door open as dramatically as she could manage.
"Honey, I'm hoooome!" She froze mid-pose in the doorway as she noted an unfamiliar figure. Homura sat stoically on the couch, Fluttershy curled up on her lap. Homura's hand was gently stroking the pony's mane. Rainbow Dash and Twilight were curled up on the other side of the couch. Homura stopped, and turned slowly around. "Oh, hello," Haruna said as she closed the door, switching her manner of speech to something slightly less over the top. "You're that girl that had that time stop powers and stuff, right?"
"Yes, that's me."
"Uh, well, it's good to actually meet you, I guess." She bobbed her head at Homura, who reciprocated. "My name is Haruna."
"Homura," she answered. "I suppose if you're coming back I should go back to my own room-"
"Nah, it's fine." Haruna dumped her bag on the floor, and walked to the couch. "Move over." She made a shooing motion at Twilight and Rainbow Dash, who grumbled a bit as they moved closer to the end of the couch. Haruna squeezed herself into the remaining space. "So you're what, halfway into the second movie? Awesome, just in time for the battle." She turned to Homura and threw a hand around her shoulder. Homura twitched a bit, unsure of exactly how to respond. "You just feel free to hang out here whenever, okay?" Haruna said. "Nodoka and Yue are cool. They won't mind having you around. And we're totally cooler than Makie anyway."
Walker poked her head out from the bush she was hiding behind. Chao's pony detector had led her to the grounds of a particularly gaudy estate that seemed to have been designed with the sole purpose of one-upping the palace at Versailles. Walker wasn't an expert on Japanese culture by any means, but she had visited frequently enough to know that land prices should be so high that a privately owned estate of this size and opulence would be an impossibility. She quickly surveyed the area before ducking back into the bush to examine the detector's screen. The little blinking light that indicated her target was inside the west wing of the massive mansion.
A few silent dashes later, and she was sidling along the edge of the building. She could hear voices from around the corner. There was apparently a section of the building that opened into a courtyard; the voices were too loud to be in an enclosed space. One of them sounded like a young female, perhaps in her mid-twenties, with a posh mid-Atlantic accent. The other voice seemed to belong to an older man who spoke only briefly and in very polite tones.
"Would you please be a dear and bring me some more of these lovely rhinestones?" said the female voice. "The blue ones, specifically. They'll look fabulous on this sash."
"Of course, miss."
Walker poked her head around the corner. She had been right; a massive inner room opened into a pillared courtyard with a tiled roof. In the center of the courtyard stood a small white pony with an intricately coiffed violet mane. She was examining a tall dress-form with a half-finished pale blue dress wrapped around it. Standing next to the dress-form was a mustachioed man who was quite obviously a butler of some sort. He seemed to be taking directions from the pony; she seemed to be sending him to fetch something. As soon as he was gone, Walker would make her move. A few tranquilizer darts, and a quick sprint, and she would be in the clear and well on her way to getting some cash in her pockets. It would certainly be one of the weirder jobs she had taken, but work was work...
She spun around at the sound of a crunch from a short ways away. It had come from the shrubs that grew against the edge of the garden shed a short distance away. She tried to hold as still as possible as she saw a pony's head pop out of the bush. Half a moment later, two pegasi descended slowly out of the night sky. All three of them were clad in form fitting bodysuits not unlike Walker's own.
"Next time wait until you're a little closer to the ground before you let go, okay Dash?" Twilight whispered, loudly enough for Walker to hear her. "Not all of us are used to crashing into stuff all the time."
"Fine, Fluttershy can carry you back," Rainbow Dash sniffed. "I still don't see why we had to wait until the middle of the night for this."
"Because we're technically supposed to stay on the Mahora campus, and they'll notice if we went missing in the middle of the day. Besides, we can't let anybody else see us. That's what the suits are for. They help us blend in at night."
"But where did you get these from anyway?" Fluttershy asked.
"They were still in the bottom of my saddlebags from that time that Pinkie, Spike, and I snuck into the Canterlot library. Don't ask."
"You did what?" Rainbow Dash's whisper was heavy with incredulity.
"I said don't ask!"
Walker groaned. She should have had Chao set the detector to detect all the ponies rather than just the one she was after.
"Okay, according to the map, the pony should be right over there!" Twilight indicated the courtyard. Let's go!"
Walker started to sidle along the edge of the building as quickly as she could manage without drawing attention to herself. The ponies apparently weren't as concerned with stealth. They were scuttling rather rapidly across the lawn. She mentally counted the number of cartridges in her tranquilizer gun. It wasn't exactly accurate from very far off, but if she could get close enough she could just knock them all out and grab the one she wanted. But that didn't look likely; they were getting too far ahead of her. At least she could see that the butler was out of the picture.
"Rarity!" Rainbow Dash took to the air.
"Wha- Rainbow Dash?" Rarity just had enough time to turn around before the pegasus barreled into her.
"I'm so glad you're okay!" Fluttershy bounded into the courtyard and threw her forelegs around her friend.
"Wh-where did you come from?" Rarity babbled, her voice nearly overcome by a mix of shock and joy. "It's so good to see you all. How did you end up here?"
"We're working on figuring that out," Twilight answered, as she finally reached the courtyard, a bit out of breath from the sprint. "I'm so happy I was able to find you." She paused, and a look of confusion spread across her face as she noticed the dress. "What have you been doing out here anyway?"
Walker took a deep breath and drew her tranquilizer gun. She hated to break up the reunion, but she had a job to do. She leaned out from the wall and popped off a round at the pegasus with the blue coat. The dart just missed the tip of Rainbow Dash's muzzle, embedding itself in the dress-form.
"What was that?" She immediately jumped into the air, wrapped all of her limbs around Rarity and began to carry her. "We've got company!"
"Okay, time for a retreat!" Twilight yelled. "Fluttershy, we have to get out of here!" Fluttershy grabbed Twilight and took flight.
"Damn it," Walker muttered to herself. She threw caution to the wind and sprinted towards the courtyard, taking shots at the ponies, who were rapid going in the opposite direction. She threw the now-empty gun to the ground and vaulted the edge of the courtyard wall. Fortunately, the courtyard roof seemed to have inhibited their progress. Walker took a deep breath and charged as hard as she could, closing the gap.
"Go, go!" Twilight shouted.
"I'm going, I'm going!" Rainbow Dash grunted. She braced herself and flapped her wings with all the strength she could muster. "WHOOOO!" She shouted in triumph as she shot out from under the roof and into the air. But her cry was a millisecond too early. Walker had closed the gap. As Rainbow Dash curved upward, she felt a huge jolt, as if Rarity's weight had inexplicably doubled. She looked down to see Walker dangling beneath her, latched onto Rarity's legs. "Oh horseapples."
Back on the ground, the butler strode into the courtyard holding a large box, which rattled with each step.
"Miss Rarity, I've brought you the rhinestones you asked- oh my." He said with the suitably butler-ish understatement to the sight of the scuffle's aftermath. He sighed as he set the box on a nearby ledge and drew a cellphone from his pocket. He held it up to his ear as he watched the ponies and the human disappear into the distance. "Miss Ayaka, it appears that there has been an incident involving your guest..."
.
Oh wow, this was a long one. There was so much stuff to cram in here that I couldn't even fit it all. Most of the scenes in here were originally intended to be shorter, but just sort of spiraled out of control. In any case, I can't think of too much to say here, so I'll just note that due to school things I'll be taking a break from writing stuff for a week or two. The end of the semester is coming up, and papers have to take priority, unfortunately enough. I'm planning to get back on things near the end of April. So I'm not dropping anything, just taking a break.
Anyway, hopefully this chapter was entertaining. Thanks for reading. Reviews are welcome.